I have also lived many years in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. I can tell you that people are not so different in their suffering for consumerism, romance, and life. We may have cable TV and high speed Internet– but for the most part the world consumes with the same appetite (just with less opportunity).

The concept of Judeo-Christian ethos and theology is based on pragmatic philosophy of eternalism. There is a body that is real and therefore there must have been a creator.

That is different than some Indian theologies where there isn’t anything, and so therefore reality is a delusion. (again from a creator).

Buddhism is the Middle path, that there is neither eternalism nor nihlism, but only experience that arise and fall away.

Buddhism flourished in Greece and the Middle East for nearly two hundred years, and it was the combined greek philosophers and Dharma teachers that help mold modern Buddhism. The same Greek philosophers that helped craft Western civilization.

Your gestalt interpretations of East vs. West religious order in the ancient world is off as well. In order to study theology and become a priest in the Middle Ages required literacy and study (which started at age 5). That placed the clergy professions far outside the reach of serfs, but as the merchant class was created– many non-nobles became clergy.

In order to be Buddhist, you are only required to take refuge in the three gems of the Buddha, Sangha and Dharma. You do not have to read or study. If you wish to be a monk, you renounce your worldly life and live by the 217 precepts of the monastic life. The Buddha created a monks life to be without caste, so beggar, slave and king were all equal. And being an oral tradition, literacy was not required.

Buddhism as a practice is used widely by non-Buddhists for stress and health relief. Buddhists as a philosophy is used by Catholic priests to teach good will and ethical learning (There are many catholic and Jesuit Buddhist priests). Buddhism as a religion does not recruit or turn away.

And yet people come by the hundreds everyday. And that does not count the night stand Buddhists who read the words of the Dalai Llama and Thatch Nan Huy.

I did not start this site as a venue for debate, and I decline to engage.

This is a boilerplate response.

It is the business of Buddhists to change ourselves. Part of the result is the ability to influence some small changes in others, mostly by example and on a small scale. Beyond that, all we can do is bear witness, and make sure that the unskillfulness of our government and other entities doesn’t go unnoticed. That is all anyone can do, and imagining otherwise is dukkha. We must look at the process, not the result.

In fact given your culture the place (currently) that Buddhism will find it hardest to be adopted is in the U.S.

In Australia our school kids are taught in secondary school about Buddhism. In fact this year I have been asked to attend a large regional high school in the state I live in to teach Buddhism and meditation.

Would that happen in the U.S?

>as opposed to the almost exponential growth during the Dharma expansion in Asia between 500 BCE and 1000 CE.

This was the height of the famous Nalanda University where there were many many great Buddhist thinkers and teachers…perhaps Buddhism needs a similar educational institution foundation/organization in the West?

My points precisely in re the US, about which I was writing specifically. As to Australia, isn’t it a bit difficult for us to refer to it as both The Antipodes and Western at the same time? Nonetheless, your point is well taken. There are places in Europe, as well, not nearly so illiterate about religion in general as the US.

The world needs a great Buddhist university.